Adhesive Games has released “The Reaper Update” for their multi-award winning free to play Mech combat game Hawken. The update was released on the 24th of January and includes a new Mech, game-play balance tweaks, important bug fixes and much much more.

Mechs

NEW Mech: Reaper

A light class front line sniper, able to adapt with both speed and precision.

Class: A (Light)

Chassis: Spree

Difficulty: 3.5/5.0

Summary: Versatile Mobile Assassin

NEW Ability: Precision Overdrive

Greatly increases your accuracy for a short period of time.

NEW Primary Weapon: AM-SAR

A rapid fire single shot high accuracy rifle. Successive shots decrease accuracy, but recovery is very quick.

Specs

Damage: 2/6

Rate of Fire: 5/6

Accuracy: 3/6

Effective Range: 5/6

Heat: 2/6

Weapon Upgrades

First: Reduced heat generation.

Second: Reduced weapon spread.

Third: Increased effective range.

NEW Alternate Primary Weapon: Hawkins-RPR (Unlockable)

Nicknamed “The Ripper”, the Hawkins-RPR fuses together two sawed-off cannons that are highly-modified to produce rapid fire, close-range carnage.

Specs

Damage: 2/6

Rate of Fire: 5/6

Accuracy: 3/6

Effective Range: 3/6

Heat: 3/6

Weapon Upgrades

First: Decreased weapon spread.

Second: Increased effective range.

Third: Increased spread stabilization.

NEW Secondary Weapon: KE-Sabot

A mid-range sniper rifle with zoom optics. Press the middle mouse button to zoom in on your enemies from afar. Zoom increases damage as well as precision.

Special Function: Close-Range Zoom

Specs

Damage: 3/6

Rate of Fire: 2/6

Accuracy: 5/6

Effective Range: 5/6

Heat: 4/6

Weapon Upgrades

First: Decreased heat generation.

Second: Increased zoom speed.

Third: Increased unzoomed damage.

Prestige Primary Weapon: Slug Rifle (Unlockable)

NEW Starting Item: Detonator

Sharpshooter

NEW Prestige Weapon: AM-SAR (Unlockable at Level 25)

NEW Ability: Power Shot

Greatly increases all damage dealt within two seconds of activating the ability.

Mech leveling upgrade descriptions have been updated to clearly reflect what is affected.

Weapons

Explosive Weapons

Knockback effect significantly reduced for all explosive weapons. This should remove the “stunlock” effect players are experiencing.

Mini-Flak Cannon

Slightly increased rate of fire.

Slightly increased damage.

Assault Rifle

Increased maximum spread.

EOC Repeater

Decreased heat generation.

Flak Cannon

Slightly decreased damage.

REV-GL

Slightly decreased damage.

SA-Hawkins

Increased damage.

Slightly increased rate of spread.

Items

NEW Offensive Item: Detonator

A slow hovering explosive charge with a massive damage radius. Press the firing mechanism a second time to detonate in mid-air. Veteran pilots are known to use the Detonator in both offensive and defensive situations.

EMP

Effect duration reduced from 7 seconds to 5.5 seconds.

Area of effect now matches the size of the visual effect.

Reduced projectile speed.

Rocket Turret

Projectiles will no longer excessively lead enemy targets. Fewer near misses, more near hits.

Radar

This item has been renamed Portable Scanner. Because it’s portable. And a scanner.

Customizations

NEW Chassis: Spree (A Class)

The Spree is common among Reapers not only for its rogue-like style, but also for its surprising flexibility. Mobile, yet offering tremendous stability, it is ideal for assignments which require venturing alone outside of friendly territory. When challenged by the ever changing battlefield, Spree pilots are known to overcome, endure, and excel. Even when swathed in dirt and dust it is highly functional, so some pilots claim that cleaning their Spree would wipe away years of hard earned “natural camouflage”. But we all know that’s just an excuse.

“Clean? Whaddaya mean, this baby IS clean!” – Deadeye Bill Buser

NEW Repair Drone: RD-SHCK

Shocks your mech back to life with streaks of electricity.

NEW Thrusters: JT-BluS

Fires a broad neon blue blast.

NEW Camouflage: Boom-Red

A blood-red and black classic fatigue pattern.

NEW Camouflage: Mos-Blu

A light blue and dark blue digitized fatigue pattern.

NEW Camouflage: Crease-Sky

A faint blue and sky blue jungle pattern.

Gameplay

An experimental Accurate Reticule option which improves reticule accuracy is now available.

This feature makes the crosshairs more accurate but may be dizzying to some players.

It can be enabled in the Settings menu as it is off by default.

Please provide your feedback on this new feature in the forums!

Players will now receive bonus XP based on their time alive in a match. Fight smart!

The leveling curve has been evened out from around level 12 to level 25.

Mechs still require the same amount of XP to reach the level cap of 25.

Please note that this change may cause your mech’s Optimization Points to be reset or your mech to go down a level even though your mech has not lost XP.

Equipment slots and alternate primary weapons now unlock sooner for all mechs.

Death from falling is now considered a suicide and will count towards pilot statistics.

Crushing Kills: Daring pilots will now be able to cause significant damage by landing on enemy mechs. These death-from-above maneuvers will grant bonus XP, and will be tracked in your pilot statistics.

Crushing damage scales per mech class and velocity. With the current formula, an A Class mech does the following: